Two years ago, Ford announced the birth of the Mustang GT3 customer racing programme. Last year, the car made its debut to lacklustre results, grabbing more headlines for shedding its bodywork than for running at the front of the field at any point.
What a difference a year makes. The 63rd Rolex 24 At Daytona was the stage for the Blue Oval’s fresh start. Ford Multimatic Motorsports’ new-look trio of Christopher Mies, Frederic Vervisch, and Dennis Olsen finally gave the Mustang GT3 its first win – anywhere in the world – after a fruitless first season across IMSA, FIA WEC, and GT World Challenge America.
Ford’s veteran stalwart Mike Rockenfeller expressed concerns that his pole lap in Qualifying wouldn’t translate to real results come race time, yet at the end of a rough and tumble race, the factory-backed Mustangs were on the podium.
Olsen and Mies kept their heads cool near the end, as the Norweigan overtook the #4 Corvette of Nico Varrone on the race’s final restart and withstood pressure from the likes of Laurin Heinrich and Alexander Sims to secure that precious first win for Ford.
‘It’s simply amazing,” Mies said of Ford’s dramatic turnaround. “When I saw the car for the first time online, I immediately got into contact with Ford and with Multimatic. I said, I want to be part of it. I wanted the change, let’s say, after a long stint with another brand (Audi).
“We came here exactly a year ago, leading the race back then, which was fantastic for a new car. But like everyone, we had some little issues. We solved them over the year. Coming back one year later together with Ford Performance and Multimatic Motorsports is incredible.”
The #64 Ford of Rockenfeller, Sebastian Priaulx, and super-sub Austin Cindric sandwiched the #3 Corvette of Antonio Garcia, Alexander Sims, and Daniel Juncadella which finished a highly-spirited second.
And that should bring us to the biggest flashpoint of the race: Paul Miller’s two cars, versus the #4 Corvette. Tommy Milner and the #4 crew lost out on a real chance at the win after an ill-mannered exchange between the #48 car – which was no longer in contention after Max Hesse was swept up in the “big one” late Saturday night – became a pain point in a battle for the lead between Milner and the #1 BMW of Connor De Phillippi.
Farfus was the direct target of Milner’s ire. The Corvette ace told his BMW counterpart he was going for first place – and he was – but the BMW would be an impediment to Milner and it escalated into Milner and De Phillippi colliding at the exit of the International Horseshoe.
“The situation with the Corvette and our sister car was very difficult. My intention was to support my teammate in the sister car in the fight for victory. I was aware that it was hard racing. The situation that led to the collision between the Corvette and Connor De Phillippi behind me was very unfortunate – but I had nothing to do with it directly. I stayed on my inside line,” Farfus said.
In the last 15 minutes, with Kelvin van der Linde now fighting for a podium, Nico Varrone in the #4 Corvette ran into the #1 BMW and sent the South African spinning out – eventually consolidating fourth place for the new M4 GT3 EVO in its American debut.
A partnership between Bartone Bros. Racing, RealTime Racing, and Germany’s GetSpeed produced a solid first IMSA result – fifth for the black #69 Mercedes-AMG GT3. The quasi-defending champions at DragonSpeed would finish sixth with the #81 Ferrari 296 GT3.
Rexy made a stirring comeback and fought for the lead up until the final hour, but the #77 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R suffered front-end damage in all the skirmishes, had to make an unscheduled stop, and sunk to eighth behind the #4 Corvette.
Trackhouse and TF Sport’s all-star effort finished ninth but, up until Connor Zilisch was spun after contact with an LMP2 car with an hour left, it looked for a moment like the #91 WeatherTech-backed Corvette would reach the podium.
For the #9 Pfaff Motorsports Lamborghini it was a race of unfulfilled potential, ending in the second part of that big Saturday night crash when Jordan Pepper ran into Max Hesse. The new partnership showed strength and resilience up to that point.
Corvette may not have gotten the GTD PRO win with the works cars, but Canadian team AWA delivered in a big way as Matt Bell and Marvin Kirchhöfer carried the black and yellow #13 Z06 GT3.R to its first GTD win, joined by Orey Fidani – the reigning Bob Akin Award winner – and Lars Kern.
Bell had to fight back after being jostled in the final restart – he was down to fourth at one stage but he eventually caught and passed Heart of Racing Team’s Mattia Drudi with about 16 minutes left to give AWA its second Daytona class win in three years (2023, LMP3).
“The restarts were intense as we always are in IMSA WeatherTech racing. Honestly, my brain is fried,” said a jubilant Bell after the race. “I can’t even remember what happened. It was awesome racing, I have to say. All the competitors that we were going toe to toe with today were really hard, really fair.
“I can’t remember where [Drudi] overtook me. He got us in the pits. I just had to get my head down. If I saw a GTD car ahead of me I just tried to overtake it. I remember vaguely getting a little bit of a nose up the side coming out of Turn 5.
“We were good in the infield. We were strong in the infield. Just managed to squeeze on past and get my head down after that and try to build a gap. It was definitely fun.”
The #120 Wright Motorsports Porsche may not have been connected to the new F1 motion picture like last year but the quartet of Elliott Skeer, Ayhancan Guven, Tom Sargent, and Adam Adelson were box-office for most of the race, culminating in Guven sprinting from fifth to second by the end.
Heart of Racing Team’s #27 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 completed the GTD podium in third, followed very closely by Winward Racing’s #57 Mercedes-AMG GT3 in fourth
And when you consider what Winward Racing had to overcome – losing seven laps in the garage to fix a stuck throttle pedal, to get back to the lead lap and then the class lead, only to have to dig out of a hole from a pitwork penalty? That is the sort of performance that made this Texas team the GTD Champions in 2024.
Turner Motorsport snuck into fifth place with the #96 BMW M4 GT3 EVO towards the end, putting five different makes in the top five in GTD.
There were disappointments of course: Quick Lamborghinis from Wayne Taylor Racing and Forte Racing were knocked out due to damage. Only one of the seven Ferrari 296 GT3s ran a clean race with no major hiccups. And of course, a catastrophic engine failure wasn’t how we wanted Andy Lally to bow out of professional sports car racing as a driver.
But AWA’s win was a great story in itself, given how wretched the start of their customer Corvette Racing programme was last year.
Early season retirements, Anthony Mantella’s infamous sale of his Corvette just two races into the year… It wasn’t ideal, to say the least – and yet, look where they are now.
If there were any whispers that Ford and GM’s first customer racing efforts at this level were doomed to failure after a tough start, Daytona proved them wrong this weekend.
